ONE day, I’ll do a thorough look at the streets in northern Tribeca as I haven’t written about that area much. Unlike other parts of Tribeca and neighboring Soho, these streets haven’t attracted a lot of commercial businesses…yet…and retain Belgian blocked streets and brick architecture that I greatly admire and enjoy.
Nah. Today, if you’re a Tribecker, or Tribeçois, or whatever they call you over there, I need your help. There are still streets in NYC whose names I have never heard pronounced and utterly stump me. Like this one, Desbrosses Street, which runs for only three blocks between Hudson and West Streets two streets south of Canal. It takes its name from a Huguenot Frenchman, Elias Desbrosses (1718-1778), an early NYC Chamber of Commerce president in the Revolutionary War era, who owned a distillery and became one of New York’s leading import-export merchants, and eventually rivaled names ike DeLancey, Lispenard and Rutgers in terms of how much acreage he controlled.
Now, if I remember my high school French (I could also consult my pal with the Greater Astoria Historical Society and co-tour guide DeeAnne Gorman, who sings in French, lived in France, and once married a Frenchman) in France the name is pronounced something like Day-BROSS. I suspect, though, that down in Tribeca it could be pronounced as spelled. Dez-BROSS-ez. Or maybe something in between, like DAY-bross. Anyway, I have no idea. Enlighten me…Comments are open.
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